Having spent a couple of days thinking through what I watched, and trying not to get too carried away, this seems fair. This game really was a perfect storm for England. Mako (subjectively) got through more work than whole England front rows of recent times, Jonny May was outstanding, Curry played his best game in an England shirt so far and Ben Youngs remembered how to play scrum half, while the 8, 9 10 backbone of the Irish side performed well below their usually high standards and Schmidt dropped a clanger by playing Henshaw at 15. On top of that, England were much closer to full strength than recent history dictates is reasonable to be able to rely upon on an ongoing basis.
The biggest positive to me was that the set piece held up well enough to put the idea of England needing to chose between set piece front rowers and dynamic ones. I have no idea where the improvement came from given that the players and coaches remain the same (injuries excepted), but long may it continue. Similarly, there seemed to be no lack of leadership, so no need to choose between having a leader in the pack or having a hooker.
If England can bring the same kind of intensity and physicality to every international, this should be an entertaining year for England supporters. I've seen Mitchell's influence written off on the basis that he was involved in the Autumn, but I hold out hope that we are now really starting to see the fruits of his labour. England looked similarly ferocious for the first 25 minutes against New Zealand, but failed to sustain it. Maybe the addition of the returning big bodies made it easier to sustain for longer against Ireland, or maybe they are now better prepared to defend the way that John Mitchell wants them to defend.
As noted by many in this thread, this is reliant on the fitness of a few players who lack a replacement in a similar mould if they go down. Also the count of silly penalties is still too high and is asking to let sides that offer more attacking threat into the game.
I would like to take some credit for masterminding the downfall of the Irish by picking Stander, Murray and Sexton in my Six Nations side! I should know to listen to the well informed Irish posters here who had been questioning their form in recent weeks.
